This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Present day electric vehicles, such as electrically powered automobiles, may employ an induction motor for providing a motive force to a pair of wheels. Typically the front wheels are powered, but in some instances all four wheels of the vehicle are powered: one motor for powering the front wheels and a separate motor for powering the rear wheels. It is also possible to power the rear wheels of the vehicle using a single electric motor. In any event, present day electrically powered vehicles typically require the use of a mechanical differential for receiving the output from the electrical motor and coupling the motive drive force to the driver and passenger side wheels of the vehicle. The driven wheels could be the front wheels of the vehicle or they could be the rear wheels of the vehicle.
The differential is needed because of the requirement that the driver and passenger side wheels need to rotate at different angular speeds when the vehicle is turning. The use of a mechanical differential, however, adds cost, complexity and weight to the vehicle. The mechanical differential also introduces mechanical losses which reduce the power made available to the wheels of the vehicle because of frictional losses within the differential.
One option for avoiding the use of a mechanical differential is by using two fully separate motors to independently drive a pair (either front or rear) of wheels of the vehicle. In this implementation typically two independent inverters are required, one for each motor, because of the need to be able to drive the wheels at different angular speeds when the vehicle is turning. As will be appreciated, this option also suffers from the drawbacks of additional cost and complexity because of the need for the second inverter.